In a business enterprise, a significant number of projects may be underway in parallel (e.g., in a software development pipeline) at any given time. Project planning is a challenging discipline that may involve planning the coordinated work of many people developing a new product. Over time, progress in or completion of each project may be described as having a certain demand, in terms of human resources, human skill sets, and various acquisitions, all of which have associated expenses or expenditures. In order to ensure that demand will be met over the course of a given project, managers of individual projects assess what the specific demand is for his or her own project. In a large enterprise, however, with significant numbers of projects in the software development pipeline, assessing the overall demand and how to meet it within budgetary constraints is complex. Over time, demand may grow in such a way that it exceeds the available resources, i.e. the supply.
In an enterprise, the human resources available represent only one aspect of the supply to meet the above-described demand. The labor supply may comprise individuals grouped in various ways according to the skill sets of each individual. In any enterprise, the supply of human resources, and particularly of valuable skill sets, varies over time as new individuals are hired, existing employees voluntarily leave or are laid off, and individuals come and go from the enterprise as contract workers.
Effectively timing a project according to a balance of the demand and the supply of resources, timing and budgetary constraints, and the timing of converting an expense to a capital investment, is a challenging task. Software tools can facilitate the task of project pipeline timing taking into account financial considerations such as capitalization of expenses.